Page 1 of Vodka and Chocolate Drops

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Don’t watch their special guest, Amber. Turn off the TV.

Amber Thompson cranked up the show’s volume and perched on the arm of the couch, her breathing becoming unsteady as she waited for her ex-boyfriend to take to the screen. With trembling hands she checked to see if the tub of double chocolate ice cream was really and truly empty. It was.

That was the thing about breakups. They made you desperate to fill the gaping hole inside, desperate to avoid the evil, heartbreaking ex forever, and yet still starved for every detail about him.

Amber sighed and went for the dill pickle chips, mowing her way through the mess of crumbs in the bag’s bottom as the man she’d lived with for the past year appeared before her in his new role as a debut novelist--smiling, confident, charming. Everything.

It was his time to shine.

Her chest tightened and she riffled through a bowl of discarded foil wrappers from chocolate drops. She’d been such a fool. How had she ever convinced herself that a handsome, award-winning newscaster would stay with her forever? She should have known that he wouldn’t choose permanence with her, a small mountain-town nobody.

A choking feeling welled up inside her as Russell Peaks was introduced by the show’s host. The suit she’d helped Russell choose hung beautifully off his trim shoulders. He looked happy and relaxed. Not at all like someone who had just ditched his live-in girlfriend by phone the night before.

He’d delivered the lines she’d been half expecting since their first kiss: “Amber, babe, I can’t do this back-and-forth thing between the city and Blueberry Springs anymore. It’s over. I won’t be coming back.”

Other than to collect his belongings from their shared rental and tow away the holiday trailer he used as a writing cave, of course. Stuff she planned to have ready at the end of the property by the time he came for it tonight.

She didn’t want to face him and the fact that she wasn’t enough, wasn’t special enough. She was just a nobody who had gone to the city in hopes of finding whatever was unique inside herself, and instead she’d found someone to use her. She’d spent months coaxing Russell through writer’s block and periods of self-doubt, and now that his life, his world, was taking off he’d dismissed and rejected her, just as her father had before she was even born.

Her life was never going to change. She was never going to be anyone special.

The interviewer asked Russell, “What was your inspiration forEmber Unfolded?”

“I’ve always been crazy enough to believe I can change the world with the written word, whether as a newscaster, reporter, or novelist,” Amber whispered, expecting him to say the lines he’d rehearsed in front of their bedroom mirror.

But instead of his practiced lines, Russell said, “Inspiration was all around me as I wrote this book.”

The only thing that had been all around him was Amber, and she was hardly inspiring. What a big fat liar he was.

She found a chocolate drop and popped it in her mouth, disappointed that it didn’t seem to help her mood.

“Rumor has it you’re dating a woman named Amber. It’s not a difficult leap to assume thatEmber Unfolded’smain character, Ember, may have been based on her.”

Amber sat straighter. She’d been mentioned on air.

The interviewer thought Amber was the main character.

Her skin ran cold, then hot, and she almost lost the chocolate drop when her mouth fell open.

She’d begged Russell for months to let her read the manuscript, but he’d insisted it was a surprise. She’d felt frustrated, yet special at the time, but now she wasn’t sure the book was going to be the type of surprise she would appreciate.

She scrambled up the creaking wooden staircase to the bedroom, then pawed through the drawers of Russell’s bedside table, looking for the key to his mobile writing office, where he kept copies of the manuscript. Nothing. All the drawers were surprisingly empty. She ran to the bureau where he kept his clothes. Also empty. He’d been moving out for weeks and she hadn’t noticed. He’d been using her right up until the final hour before his success, then had discarded her like garbage.

She took in their bedroom with fresh eyes. AWriter’s DigestandNewsweekon the nightstand, a stack of books on the bureau and a print he’d chosen on the wall. That was it. The only signs that he’d slept in this room for a year.

Below, Amber could hear Russell on TV. “That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Who is Ember?” There was a pause, then in a quieter, not quite reverent tone, he said, “Amber Thompson and I are no longer dating.”

Ember Unfolded. The title had never made any sense to her, but now… Ember was the heroine and inspiration had been all around him.

If he’d dumped her on the eve of his book’s release, “Ember” couldn’t be good news.

Swallowing the panic that was ripping away her strength, Amber ran down the stairs two at a time, avoiding the one at the bottom with the loose board. She rummaged through the junk-food wrappers on the coffee table, looking for her car keys. She needed to read the book. She needed to know the truth.

Now.

The interviewer was still asking about the Ember/Amber connection, and Russell replied quickly, “She hasn’t read the book. And no, it has nothing to do with our breakup.”

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